• ALGAE
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• 제37권1호
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• pp.75-84
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• 2022

Intercellular nutrient and signal transduction are essential to sustaining multicellular organisms and maximizing the benefits of multicellularity. It has long been believed that red algal intercellular transport of macromolecules is prevented by the protein-rich pit plug within pit-connections, the only physical connection between cells. Fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran and recombinant green fluorescence protein (rGFP) of various molecular sizes were injected into vegetative cells of Griffithsia monilis using a micromanipulator, and intercellular transport of the fluorescent probes was examined. Pit-connections were found to provide intercellular transport of tracers at rates comparable to plasmodesmata in other organisms. The time necessary for the transport to an adjacent cell was dependent on the molecular size and the direction of the transport. Fluorescent dextran of 3 kDa was transported to adjacent cells in 1-2 h after injection and migrated to all cells of the filament within 24 h, but fluorescent dextran of 10-20 kDa took 24 h to transfer to neighboring cells. The migration occurred faster towards adjacent reproductive cells and to apical cells than basally. Fluorescent tracers above 40 kDa and rGFP was not transported to neighboring cells, but accumulated near the pit plug. Our results suggest that pit-connections are conduit for macromolecules between neighboring cells and that these size-specific conduits allow intercellular communication between the vegetative cells of red algae.

• ALGAE
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.79-90
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• 2004

Nuclear DNA contents of spermatia from eight ceramiacean and four dasyacean algae (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) and microspores from two land plants were estimated by fluorescence microscopic image processing and their nuclear SSU rDNA sequence data were analyzed. In frequency distribution patterns, the DAPI-stained nuclear volume (NV) of spermatia showed two peaks corresponding to 1C and 2C. Nuclear 2C DNA contents estimated from NV were 0.45-2.31 pg in ceramiacean and 0.40-0.57 pg in dasyacean algae and 8.42-9.51 pg in two land plants, Capsicum annuum and Nicotiana tabacum. By nuclear patterning of vegetative cells derived from an apical cell, 2C DNA contents of spermatia were 2.31 pg in an alga having uninucleate and non-polyploid nucleus (Aglaothamnion callophyllidicola), 0.45-1.94 pg in algae having uninucleate and polyploid nucleus (Antithamnion spp. and Pterothamnion yezoense), and 0.40-0.62 pg in algae having multinucleate and non-polyploid nuclei (Griffithsia japonica and dasyacean algae). Each mature spermatium and microspore (pollen grain) seemed to have a 2C nucleus, which may provide a genetic buffering system to protect the genetic content of a spermatium and microspore from potentially lethal mutations. Nuclear DNA content and SSU rDNA sequence of Antithamnion sparsum from Korea were reasonably different from those of Antithamnion densum from France. The data did not support the previous taxonomic studies that these two taxa could be conspecific.